Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Demon Swordsmanship

The rest period was now on its second day.

For two days, I had poured every bit of game knowledge I possessed into focusing on growth.

“Thank ye, young man!”

“It was nothing.”

“Still, it’s truly strange how you managed to find our Chuchu when your eyes can’t even see properly.”

The old man was stroking the cat named Chuchu, which he held in his arms.

For me, who knew where the cat had been hiding, it had been a very easy task.

Of course, the cat listened far less than I expected, so I had to hurriedly buy a fish from a fish shop, but the result was good.

“It isn’t much, but take this as a gift. This time I used trustworthy ingredients, so it should be a success!”

This ordinary-looking grandfather was an alchemist.

More precisely, should I call him a “mad alchemist”?

He was a character who appeared only in the early part and then vanished, so I knew neither his name nor his true identity.

In any case, what mattered to me was the reward.

When I accepted the potion the old man handed me, he waved and disappeared into a shaded alley.

“With this, have I finished almost all of the side quests that can be easily cleared early on?”

It was not that difficult to organize what I needed to do.

The better quests were those with rewards useful for the occupation of “swordsman,” and they had to be early-game quests that were easy enough to clear in a short time.

I had filtered them as much as I could, but there were more than expected, so the schedule had been tight. The sun had already finished its work for the day and was making its exit.

This potion currently in my hand, called a “potion of unknown use,” actually possessed the tremendous effect of raising skill points.

—Gulp, gulp.

Without delaying any further, I drank the potion down in one go.

“...Ugh.”

It tasted like garbage.

The color was strange too, so I hadn’t expected it to taste good, but nausea still rose in my throat.

Still, didn’t they say good medicine was bitter?

I immediately checked my status window.

“My skill points definitely went up.”

While I was at it, I used all the points I had left.

<​Zeto> lv.10

Skills Owned

-Demon Swordsmanship Lv.8

-Keen Senses lv.3

-Weakness Detection lv.MAX - Effect of [Blindfold of Piercing Insight] currently applied

Items Equipped

-Blindfold of Piercing Insight [Legendary]

-Shabby-Quality Eastern Sword [Normal]

-Vibrant Silver Necklace [Rare]

I had really moved hard over the past two days.

Seeing the status window showing growth to match, I felt rather proud inside.

Since quests that only gave experience also had their rewards function properly, my level had risen by five, and thanks to that, I had been able to raise my skill levels quite a bit as well.

The average level of students taking the class placement exam was around level 6.

Compared to that, I had already reached level 10.

It was thanks to the blindfold’s effect, “experience gained increased by 500%,” being applied quite effectively.

In any game, if levels existed, the difference between them was bound to show clearly.

It did not seem that the people of this world knew of the existence of “levels,” but that difference would definitely exist.

For starters, when one’s level rose, the amount of mana held within the body increased.

Mana could be considered the foundation of power in this world.

Mages went without saying, and knights who carried swords, even martial artists, had to be able to handle mana.

That was because it was common to fight by strengthening the body or weapon through mana.

I could personally feel that the amount of mana circulating in my body had increased sharply compared to the first day.

At this rate, achieving a high score in the class placement exam might not be such a dreamlike story.

“Well, my practical experience is overwhelmingly lacking, though.”

For reference, my wallet had grown nice and heavy while clearing quests too.

And yet the memory of spending every coin I had on a carriage ride just a few days ago was still fresh.

“I’m hungry. Should I buy a sandwich on the way back to the dormitory?”

Around here, there was a famous sandwich shop that made sandwiches with meat from a boar-type monster called a “Boar.”

Since coming to this world, the thing I had been unexpectedly enjoying in its own way was probably the food.

I could taste for myself the peculiar dishes full of fantasy flavor that I had only ever seen in the game, and those foods were actually quite delicious.

Of course, the academy dormitory also provided meals of good quality, but for someone like me, who had played the game for a long time, the city’s local delicacies drew my eye even more.

For tonight’s dinner, the special Boar meat sandwich had been chosen.

***

The final day of the rest period.

I raised my stiff body from the bed.

The dormitory assigned by the academy was a single room.

In other words, there was no need to rub shoulders with some unfamiliar man.

The inside of the room was very luxurious compared to the inn room where I had stayed before coming to the academy.

In my case, as long as the bed was fine, that was enough.

The inn room bed I mentioned earlier had been at the level of straw with only a sheet laid over it, so it had not been easy for me, with a modern person’s senses still intact, to get a good night’s sleep.

The dormitory bed?

It was far superior to the bed I had in my studio apartment.

On the first day, I had even overslept because of it.

From early morning, I washed up and finished getting ready to go out.

Today, I planned to go to the training ground and test the skills I possessed.

“The passive skills have worked well so far.”

“Demon Swordsmanship” helped me, someone who had never once held a sword, handle one skillfully and dazzlingly, while “Keen Senses” gave me faster reaction speed through sharpened senses.

As for “Weakness Detection,” which I obtained through the Blindfold of Piercing Insight, I had not experienced it yet, but I knew what kind of effect the skill had.

The effect of Weakness Detection was simply an increase in critical hit rate.

But now that it had become reality, how it would operate was still unknown. Since I had not experienced combat yet, it seemed I would only know once I fought.

Before I knew it, I had arrived at the training ground and lightly loosened up my body first.

“Is he... blind?”

“But he’s even carrying a sword?”

“He must be a new student too.”

The gazes of the students who had arrived before me focused on me, but after spending two days wandering here and there to clear quests, this was now a reaction I was used to.

I only needed to do what I had to do.

—Shing.

I slowly drew my sword.

The Eastern sword in my grip had a thin, single-edged blade.

So it was better suited to cutting than thrusting.

I immediately swung it with fluid motion.

Demon Swordsmanship.

Originally, Demon Swordsmanship was a skill that could only exhibit its true effect when a sword contained the soul of the dead—that is, a demon.

In this world, it only shone when used together with a cursed blade, also called a demonic sword.

Depending on whose soul the cursed blade contained, how strong the demonic energy of that soul was, and how strong the soul had been in life, the performance of Demon Swordsmanship differed as much as heaven and earth.

It was unreasonable to expect its full performance from the beginning, but if the conditions were fulfilled, it was a late-blooming skill capable of displaying tremendous power.

For that to happen, first creating a sword that could withstand powerful demonic energy was the priority, and finding a powerful soul, sealing it inside the sword, and making a cursed blade was an essential process.

Materials resistant to demonic energy, needed when crafting the sword.

Funds to commission a skilled blacksmith for its creation.

These were not things that could be resolved just because I had been given a few days.

There was no great problem regarding powerful souls.

With the game knowledge I possessed, that could be resolved quickly.

Since I had already used Demon Swordsmanship in the game, there were several suitable candidates whose locations I knew.

As powerful as they were, sealing them would be...

“...It won’t be as easy as in the game.”

Demon Swordsmanship was not showing its true performance yet, but at least it was still swordsmanship.

Perhaps because the skill level had certainly gone up, the sword itself moved with even greater speed and flourish than before.

I stopped swinging the sword and came to a halt.

“Hah... Hah...”

My breath rose all the way to my throat.

I could clearly feel even the hot beads of sweat running down my face.

It was because I had drawn out as much mana as possible, filled my entire body with it, and swung the sword.

“How on earth did they train with such a ridiculous method...”

I might have had a little more mana than the other students, but there was one point where I was markedly weaker than them.

Handling mana.

My mana operation was poor.

The current me was merely wrapping mana around my entire body in a crude way.

Using the desired amount of mana on the desired part of my body was close to impossible.

There had been no mana in the modern world.

This unfamiliar energy circulating within my body called mana could never feel familiar to a modern person.

It was a sensation far more alien than having a tail and three more arms that humans were never supposed to possess.

Even in the game, mana had been nothing more than a simple stat.

And the player skipped over the process of handling it.

Because that was a game.

But in this world, mana was far too important.

It was a world where even commoners moving heavy loads operated mana to lift their burdens more easily.

And so, in order to become more familiar with handling mana, I was copying the training method of one of the major characters.

An extremely simple training method: wrap mana around the entire body and swing a sword until stamina ran out.

With all strength drained from my body, I leaned and collapsed against one wall of the training ground.

This time, neither my game knowledge nor the performance of my broken item could resolve it.

***

By the time the surroundings had darkened and the buildings began lighting up one by one.

I dragged my aching body out of the training ground.

Naturally, I had not seen any noteworthy effect in a single day.

My whole body was a wreck.

My bones creaked, and my muscles writhed, wanting rest.

“I got too greedy right before the exam.”

I could do nothing more today.

The best choice was to return to the dormitory and take a deep rest.

On the way back to the dormitory with my miserable gait.

The appearance of someone approaching from the far side of the main road looked familiar.

“Hah.”

The moment I noticed her presence, a snort escaped me.

“She didn’t even show the tip of her nose at the entrance ceremony... but at least it wasn’t that she never enrolled.”

Not only was she a major character, she was also the woman I had searched so desperately for since the entrance ceremony.

The white coat worn over her uniform, like her signature.

With the bright moonlight as her spotlight, her brilliant platinum-blonde hair shone dazzlingly.

I drew gradually closer to her.

What a relief.

If she had not existed in this world, I would have had to take a great many detours.

That was how important she was to me.

Perhaps far more than when she was inside the game.

Now we were close enough that I could see her golden eyes with the naked eye.

If this were in the game and I were the player, she would speak to me at this timing... but I was aware that such a thing might not happen.

However, she did not pass me by. She came to a complete stop in front of me.

Because she blocked me head-on, I had no choice but to stop walking as well.

“...”

“...”

I wondered if she would at least speak to me, but her lips did not open, and no voice came.

She simply kept her mouth firmly shut and quietly observed me.

Eyes in which many thoughts seemed to pass by.

Her expression was complicated, and I could feel only an emotion impossible to describe.

“Do you have some business with me...?”

“...”

No answer came back.

In the end, she stood there for quite some time like that, then stared intently at me as she passed by my side.

“What on earth was that?”

I turned back at the absurd sight, but all that entered my eyes was her back as she silently walked past me.

Her name was Eisel Ludwig.

The character I had tried somehow to save in the game, through countless retries...

...and the only “regressor” in this game—no, in this world.